THRIPIDAE (INSECTA: THYSANOPTERA) ON PETUNIA VARIETIES FROM WESTERN ROMANIA – TAXONOMIC KEYS.

The vast majority of the Thripidae (Insecta:Tysanoptera) species are pest species with phytophagous feeding habits, being economically important horticultural pest globally, attacking a wide range of ornamental plants. In addition to causing extensive crop damage, the species are notorious for vectoring destructive plant viruses, mainly belonging to the Tospovirus genus. This study aims to monitoring the thrips species collected from 6 Petunia x hybrida varieties in western Romania, to present the taxonomic keys for identification, and studies its population dynamics during the season. The Petunia x hybrid varieties used in the experiment were: Tropical, Purple Picotee, Cherry Pop, Bicolor Yellow Red, Orange Bouquet, Pink Bouquet. The observations were carried out for a period of 70 days – from 10 February to 20 May, using colored sticky traps. Traps were placed above the crop canopy to intercept dispersing thrips from wider areas. After an atent monitoring of Petunia x hybrida varieties in greenhouses, 6 thrips species were collected and identified, as followed: Frankliniella occidentalis Pergande, Frankliniella fusca Hinds, Frankliniella schultzei Trybom, Thrips tabaci Lindeman, Thrips palmi Karny and Heliothrips haemorrhoidalis Bouché – all being polyphagous species. Frankliniella occidentalis Pergande was the most harmful species, causing the highest damage on flowers, and was able to survive and reproduce at higher rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]